Little White Lies

Chapter 7
Izzy

I’ve been trapped in Ray’s apartment for over four hours now. We had a slight argument about the state of this place, which I won,
naturally. He agreed to help get everything cleaned up, and most importantly, keep everything clean. He drove to the convenience store to get more black bags and actual cleaning supplies that don’t include an empty bottle of bleach. I started cleaning up and organising a few things already, but I can feel my lack of sleep creep up on me. I think I’m just gonna take a nap until Ray gets back.

I can’t even get a good nap in. Thanks to invasive thoughts of Alex. I wonder why he looked so shocked to see that I’m acquainted
with Ray. I wonder why Ray looked so shocked to see that I was with Alex. Now I wonder why I see some odd sense of resemblance between the two of them.

I decide that my lounging around isn’t going to get any work done, so I hop off the bed in Ray’s spare bedroom and head for the
kitchen. I try to busy myself with the load of dishes but the silence within the silence makes the void feel bigger. I head back to the room in search of my headphones; it’s still plugged into my phone so I pull that out of my backpack too. I unlock my phone and notice
a missed call from my mother. A little too late to worry now, Marcy Grace-Shaw.

                                    ***

I decide to call her back, but only so that I can talk to Kaden. She answers on the second ring.

“Hello?” Her voice sounds rusty.

“Hi.” I say, flatly.

“H...How are you?” I can hear that she’s just trying to figure out where I am.

“Where’s Kaden? I want to talk to him.” I say, ignoring her question.

“Here.” She exhales, and there’s shuffling in the background.

“Hallo” Kaden says, a little too loudly.
I smile. He’s the only person who makes me smile the way I do.

“Hey, buddy. How’s it going?” I ask, wiping away a tear that escaped.

“I’m okay. But we didn’t have Pizza and Ice Cream yesterday like you said.”

I can hear the sadness in his little loud voice.

“I’m so sorry, buddy. Give the phone back to mom, let me talk to her.” I can feel the anger starting to build up inside of me.

“Isabella, I-”

“-Listen to me carefully, you can kick me out, fine. You can choose that devil husband of yours over me, fine. But you will NOT make
my son unhappy, do you hear me?!” I am fuming through my ears.

There’s about three minutes of silence. It feels like three eternities. I feel suffocated as it consumes the air. I can’t believe I just said
that. Maybe if I pretend I didn’t say it, she wouldn’t say anything about it, “Give the phone to Kaden. I want to say goodbye to him.”

She sighs and I can hear her tell him that I just want to say goodbye. This woman drains the life right out of me.

“Hallo? Mom says you just want to say bye.” He says it like that’s the last thing he wants right now. It’s definitely the last thing I want
right now.

“I’m sorry, buddy, but I gotta go okay?” I swallow back the lump in my throat.

“Okay.” He basically whispers it.

“I love you Kaden Raymond Shaw.” A tear escapes before I can stop it.

“I love you too, Izzy Emory Grace.” He hangs up.

Every year since Kaden was born, it’s gotten harder and harder to keep up this white lie my mother made me swear to keep. His
whole life is based on a lie, and I seem to be the only one bothered by it.
   
                                    ***

Ray returns with the cleaning supplies and some food along with it. Good thinking, De Luca. I pick up and dispose of almost anything old and/or dirty. The local newspaper is on the kitchen counter so I grab that, but just before I throw that in the trash bag, I see
something on the front page that catches my eye; “Young local artist opens art gallery.”

Whoa! I think about how I’m probably a
failure to the entire society. I pull myself onto the counter and read further. The name of the artist almost throws me off the counter.

“Alexander De Luca?” I say to no one.

Probably a coincidence, but probably not.
I immediately assume the worst, which in my case, the worst is always right. I don’t tell Ray about my discovery, but I did put the
gallery’s address into my phone.

We eat dinner in silence. I know he wants to ask me a million questions, but he knows I probably won’t answer any of them. I take our plates and put them in the dishwasher.

“I’m gonna head to bed, it’s been a long day.” He says, grabbing the milk from the refrigerator and pours some into a glass. I laugh under my breath.

“What?” He looks genuinely confused.

“I used to do that every night when I was a kid.” I say, pointing to his glass of milk.

He puts it in the microwave and sets it for thirty seconds. “You’re still a kid, Izzy.”

“No, I’m not. I’m actually more of an adult than you think.” I say flatly.

He just looks at me, and then takes his milk out of the microwave. He turns to walk away.

“Ray, wait.” I say, a little too loudly.
He turns around slightly; his back is still facing me.

“Uhm, can I borrow your car?” I say quickly.

He turns around, completely facing me.

“Do you even have your licence?” He says, as he takes a sip from his glass.

“Of course I do, I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t.” I put on a convincing smile.

He eyes me for a while, almost like he knows I’m lying but he wants to see if it’s worth the risk.

“Okay. The keys are hanging behind
the door. Be back by eleven.” He turns around, and walks to his bedroom.

I take a quick shower and get dressed, and then I rush downstairs. I enter the address into Google Maps and drive Ray’s Jeep like a boss.